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Saturday, July 29, 2017

Still away of course and knowing myself as I do, at this point in my vacation I have probably desperately tried to locate a museum, art gallery, or library and have threatened my sister with great bodily harm for pestering me about going shopping for the umpteenth time at the exact same generic mall one could find in any god forsaken suburbanite hell hole. Fear god, I'm probably doing something touristy now too. If I come back with my hair in cornrows and a henna tattoo, I hope someone in my life will rightfully shame me in public.

Sometime today, unless something has changed since my absence, the Canadian Combat Coalition will be holding an event in Edmonton followed by, so Ryan Dean claims, an event on a nearby private property:

One however can't help noticing in all of their announcements leading up to this event that the bravado that preceded the June 24 June 25 MEGA Patriot Rally in Calgary isn't quite there any longer.

Although both Dean and Joey DeLuca of the WCAI initially desperately tried to spin it as a success, their MEGA rally was a dismal failure. They have started to admit as such now publicly, though they can't blame their own incompetence as reason. No, there has to be a scapegoat:

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Yep, I'm still away and hopefully stretched out on a beach enjoying a Cuba Libre, though given my constitution more than likely laid up in a hotel room regretting not getting that Dukoral booster with a sunburn so bad you could roast a marshmallow using the heat radiating off my body. Either way, here is another now likely out-of-date article scheduled to publish while I'm away.

In a week from today, the Canadian Combat Coalition is planning on holding an event in Edmonton with the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam in attendance as well:

You were never fooling anyone with that name, Ryan.

I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath to hear the oratory of one Joey DeLuca

Given the disaster that the June 24 June 25 MEGA Patriot Rally turned out to be, this might be perceived as an effort to save the CCC and WCAI reputation as actual significant players on the far-right anti-Muslim/refugee/immigrant scene. Certainly Ryan Dean and Joey DeLuca would like to return to the numbers that participated in the June 3 rally which was in large part bolstered by the presence of III% Alberta members who provided security.... and were carrying weapons, btw. The III% members didn't participate in the MEGA rally ostensibly because of "security concerns" when the mayor of Calgary and Muslim student groups were invited by Garvey, however the head of the Alberta III% militia suggests another possible reason:

First, Beau Welling seems just a wee bit full of himself and the capabilities of the III% militia.

Second, even he seems to recognize that the CCC and WCAI are in fact hate groups. In this reply he does seem to be at pains to separate the III% Alberta militia from other groups. He also posted a message claiming to have spoken to the RCMP whom he claims doesn't regard the III% militia as a hate group:

Oh, not a "pure hate group."

Well that is certainly reassuring.

If such a conversation did take place, I'm guessing that Beau is either gilding the lily or really didn't understand the nature of the discussion because given the rhetoric of the membership, the III% would absolutely be on the radar of the RCMP.

At the beginning of July ARC published an article discussing the decline of the Soldiers of Odin and how the membership is drifting into other, perhaps even more extreme, movements. This fella who was (and may still be) in an SoO leadership position is a case in point:

Also, last month Mack Lamoureux wrote an article for "Vice" detailing a months long investigation into the III% movement, focusing specifically on the Alberta chapter which appears to be the most active as well as a sit down interview with Beau Welling. The article indicates the III% militia is a deeply paranoid, anti-Muslim group that readily accepts any conspiracy theory that confirms their biases. This may be somewhat of a concern under normal circumstances, but add the stockpiling of weapons for a future civil war and the "monitoring" of those citizens they consider to be un-Canadian, well, the danger meter is sort of dialed to 11.

First, let's take a look at the claim that they aren't racists. As of the writing of this article, the New Democratic Party is in the midst of a leadership campaign. One of the candidates is Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian-born Sikh (and a much better dresser than I am). The presence of Singh, who again I stress was born in Canada, was commented on by at least some III% supporters:

Well, maybe their antipathy was directed more towards the NDP, though I somehow doubt that is the whole reason.

One thing that is crystal clear though is the III% Alberta hatred of Muslims. Here are but a few of the posts that illustrate that:

There's also the anti-Muslim conspiracy theories that get trotted out with frequency:

They also seem to attract a few people who are.... shall we say questionable?

Well Evert, Thomas Trenerry certainly didn't stand alone when the Aryan Guard was a going concern:

Trenerry's involvement in the III% militia actually brings me to the other reason why the RCMP would be keeping an eye on the III% militia. Even if the racism and Islamophobia was not present, the III% militia would be a concern due to their anti-government position that is often (hell, usually) violent in nature, at least rhetorically speaking:

Again, the following is merely a Whitman's Sampler of anti-government rhetoric from III% supporters on the Alberta Facebook, national, and other provincial Facebook groups, much of which is directed at the current Prime Minister and would probably constitute a crime:

And then there is there is how they monitor people. Not just the Muslims, as was evident in the Vice article, but also their ideological opponents:

Not Jason, or Bonnie, or Andy, or Shane, or Marcell, or Syed, or Leah, or Julian, or Richard, or Charles, or Grace, or Martin, or Alan, or "two brothers in Calgary," or any of the other people that have been erroneously listed as writers of the blog. Some of the names aren't even ones I recognize as activists. It has been almost a decade and you still have yet to get it right. Then again why listen to me now when you haven't so far?

Really, you people are very bad at this.

Don't think that being a bystander gets you off the hook. Not showing the requisite amount of patriotism for a III% supporter might be enough to put you or, as in this case, your neighborhood on the list:

When reading posts such as these, I can't help thinking of the line from Alan Moore's groundbreaking comic series:

Some of what I'm about to write about comes from mid to late June and there will most likely be things that come up in July before this article self-published, but meh! I'm on vacation.

Joey DeLuca of the WCAI has continued to attempt to rationalize the failure of the June 24 June 25 MEGA Patriot Unity Rally in the most hilarious of ways:

It is like he strung every possible cliche he could think of together to try and sound important.

"Shakes the establishment to its very core...." eh?

"Your greatness will silence them all" hmmmm?

And by the way, it is a myth that Europeans thought the Earth was flat. The concern about a westward voyage to Asia was that (a) the distance was too great and that the sailors would die of thirst and hunger before reaching land and (b) that the winds would make a return voyage difficult. And Columbus didn't "discover" America because he was looking for it as Joey seems to imply; thank goodness it was there for his crew's sake since they WOULD have died before reaching the shores of Japan had a massive continent not been between Asia and Europe.... though it certainly wasn't good for the people who Columbus met who had occupied that continent for at least 20,000 - 25,000 years.

But I digress....

Still, the WCAI and their new friend Sandra Solomon have been busy. And by busy I mean making further fools of themselves:

Friday, July 14, 2017

Devon Mannix, the 19 year old Alberta chapter head of the fringe Cultural Action Party and WCAI supprter, posts a lot on social media about protecting "old stock" Canadians and somehow getting rid of all the icky ethnics who live here as well, though he doesn't provide a clear plan on how that would actually occur; despite some of their families likely predating his own family's immigration history, he doesn't consider those of non-European heritage to be "real" Canadians. He also goes on about the "Muslim invasion" including a recent effort to promote the idea that there were Muslim no-go zones in Fort McMurray that even other Islamophobes had to call bs on.

Another common thread in his posts is that there is no such thing as a refugee. In his mind, anyone fleeing an active war zone should be classified as an economic migrant and thus denied entry into the country. And if he does even concede that maybe there is a conflict causing people to flee, when then those people are cowards for running and thus also not the kind of person who should be allowed into Canada.

However, Devon Mannix has acknowledged there is a class of people who are legitimate refugees whom Canada should throw open the doors to. And those refugees are white South Africans:

Monday, July 10, 2017

I'm going to be stepping away from the blog for a while because I was convinced by a sibling that I should take a vacation with her, in part because she thinks I need a break from work but mostly because she doesn't want to travel alone.

Where are we going? Trekking in Tibet? Taking a felucca down the Nile in Egypt? How about a trip to Peru to visit Machu Picchu?

Nope.

An all-inclusive stay at a resort in Turk And Caicos where she has a friend who got us an extended stay on the cheap.

Ugh.... I should have asked about the destination before I agreed to this. Beaches are boring and one can drink only so many fruity cocktails with tiny umbrellas. I shouldn't be viewing this trip with dread but, here we are.

Be that as it may, I'll be gone from the point that this post published to the middle of August when I've used up a good chunk of my banked days off from previous years. In the past ARC could continue to publish while I was away because there actually WAS a collective, but as such is no longer the case I have scheduled some article to self-publish during my absence meaning that by the time you see them they will be incredibly out of date and probably of limited relevance.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

The story that has dominated much of the media cycle during the early days of this month has been the settlement made to Omar Khadr who at 15, was accused of killing American special forces soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer. Khadr was held at Guantanamo for a decade before he was returned to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada. During this time the Supreme Court ruled that the Canadian government's interrogation of Khadr, "offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects." The settlement and apology were as a result of a civil suit Khadr brought against the Canadian government claiming the government had worked with the American government to abuse his rights. He also suggested that his plea agreement was based on his belief that it was the only chance he would have to be transferred back to Canada from Guantanamo and that he had no memory of the firefight that resulted in the death of Sgt. Speer. To be sure, there has been a debate not only about the treatment of someone who would be considered a child soldier, but also whether or not he actually threw the grenade in the first place.

Obviously this story has polarized Canadians. While I agree with the settlement and with Prime Minister Trudeau's justification that the Charter needs to be protect all Canadians, including Khadr whom the Supreme Court ruled had his rights violated, there are a number of people who I normally agree with and whom I respect a great deal who disagree with the settlement. I have had some very good discussions with these individuals about their concerns and while I don't agree, I understand where they are coming from. However there also those who are attempting to use this issue as a cudgel to win political points. Personally, I don't believe Ezra Levant, Andrew Scheer, or the people this blog covers who are apoplectic about the settlement actually give a damn about Sgt. Speer's widow and simply view this as a means of attacking the government. In fact, the rhetoric involved clearly indicates an antipathy towards not only Omar Khadr, but Muslims in general and the virulent Islamophobia that has been a feature of conservative politics since Stephen Harper first began talking about "old stock Canadians" and Kellie Leitch tried to emulate Donald Trump's xenophobia in her failed bid in the Conservative leadership race.

And so it isn't at all surprising to see two extremely partisan Conservative operatives and activists organizing a rally on Parliament Hill for July 16:

I'll get to Georgeanne Burke and Debbie Jodoin in a moment, but some of the initial comments left on the page are as follows:

Considering Khadr was born in Canada, deportation would be difficult, then again....

Saturday, July 08, 2017

Well it has been a few days since ARC first published the story on the Proud Boys who disrupted the memorial in Halifax and who happen to be members of the Canadian Armed Forces.... for now at least. As much as ARC would like to take the credit for the story becoming as big as it eventually did, the real credit goes to the Anonymous group who published the videos on YouTube first as well as those who were present and wrote about the incident on social media. They are the ones who deserve all the credit.

Still, ARC certainly did get a lift for a few days in terms of readership over four days:

'Their future in the military is certainly in doubt,' says Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of defence staff

The members of the Canadian Armed Forces who disrupted a protest organized by Indigenous activists in Halifax on Canada Day will be removed from training and duties as the military investigates and reviews the circumstances, says the country's top general.

"We are the nation's protectors, and any member of the Canadian Armed Forces who is not prepared to be the defender we need them to be will face severe consequences, including release from the forces," Gen. Jonathan Vance, chief of defence staff, said in a statement Tuesday night.

Sort of. He kind of does it rather half-assed.... or maybe no chinned?:

And my favorite:

First, how was it their job to disrupt a memorial?

And second, McInnes' decision to start the Proud Boys and ramp up violent rhetoric directed at those beta cuck leftard snowflake sjw's is in part the cause of the mess these five are in now. McInnes owns this as much as the five who disrupted the ceremony.

Now while McInnes is trying to cram the genie he let out back in the bottle, other "alt-right" and over racists are celebrating the actions of these men.

Such as the folks at Stormfront:

Members of the anti-government III% militia:

New groups like the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, including the Saskatchewan "captain" who was convicted not to long ago of threatening to harm the prime minister....

.... as well as Canadian Action Party Alberta "leader" (and WCAI ally) Devon Mannix who isn't even subtle in his racism:

Even old relics like Canadian Nazi Party founder John Beattie is excited:

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A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.

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